The Family Research Council, a right wing conservative think tank that
staunchly opposes abortion and equal rights for members of the LGBTQ community.
Has just been designated a tax exempt church by the IRS which is
laughable because it's anything but.
Now this tax exempt status not only allows them to dodge paying taxes,
they're also now able to hide who funds them, how convenient.
So the website for the Family Research Council states the following,
we are a nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to
articulating and advancing a family centered philosophy of public life.
In addition to providing policy research and analysis for legislative,
executive and judicial branches of the federal government.
Family Research Council seeks to inform the news media,
the academic community, business leaders and the general public about
family issues that affect the nation from a biblical worldview.
So like let's just be clear this is not a place of worship.
This is not a church you go to on Sundays for mass.
This is a literal right wing think tank full of
theocratic zealots who wanna control our lives.
And they have just been granted tax exempt status and
have been noted as a church by the Internal Revenue Service, unbelievable.
And so we'll get to the details on what this means exactly.
I wanna tell you exactly how they're able to avoid certain disclosures that we
should know about when it comes to these individuals and who funds them.
>> Uneven playing field, if all the democratic and
progressive organizations should immediately declare themselves churches
because apparently doesn't mean anything, they have nothing to do with the church.
It's absurd I mean, as you'll see in the details,
there's no place of worship, there's no place to pray.
They say, sometimes we pray on our own.
Yes so, do you know what?
>> So do we.
>> So do we. Okay, you know what young Turks now,
tax exempt organization okay.
Now, of course, they would say no, you're not allowed.
But the right wing does it they're like right away, sir, right away, sir,
cuz we wouldn't want the right wing to yell at us.
Plus half the people that work in the government, a right wing.
So they're like, a way to cheat and make sure they can hide their
corrupt donors and pretend to be a church and get tax exempt status.
The right wingers in government go, yes, I love it, let's cheat.
And the and the democrats in government go, I don't want Fox News to yell at me.
Okay yeah, what part of it is a church?
It's a lobbying group, it's literally a lobbying group.
>> Yeah, from its perch at the heart of the nation's capital.
The Family Research Council has pushed for legislation banning gender-affirming
surgery, filed amicus briefs supporting the overturning of Roe v Wade.
And advocated for religious exemptions to civil rights laws.
And I want you guys to understand how we have arrived at this moment.
Because this story is more than just what the Family Research Council
was able to do by getting tax exempt status.
This specific story is proof of the massive victory of
a 50 plus year effort by the right wing in America, who were so
furious about the fact that their segregated private
schools had lost tax exempt status under the Nixon administration.
That is what launched the culture war on the right, okay.
That's how they galvanized anti choice voters, they got them all together and
they went forward with this effort to strip us of our rights.
But more importantly, to ensure that the system is specifically set up in
a way that allows them to benefit financially.
Paul Weyrich is the specific guy, and by the way, he died a hideous death.
I loved reading about it, you should read about it as well.
Sorry, love to admit it.
But that man was so furious about integration in schools,
he loved segregation.
And when integration began and all of these religious evangelical leaders
across the country started forming their own private institutions, so
only white students could go to them.
The government's like, yo no you can't you're gonna lose your tax exempt status,
we can't do this and that happened under Nixon.
And now under Biden a democratic president,
we have the IRS handing a massive victory to the movement,
that Paul Weyrich started back in the 1970s.
Yeah that's cool, I just wanted to understand the most important part of that
was they did not want black students in their schools.
And they're like, well, I wanna be able to be racist and also keep the money.
And so that's what motivated them in the first place.
And this is really important guys, it's not just that they're a lobbying
group that doesn't have anything to do with being a church.
Is this your version of Christianity?
I mean, look, I'll pull the right wing line, moderate Christians, where are you?
Cuz right now, the only people representing you in public are these
monsters who don't give a damn about what Jesus said, helping the poor and
the needy.
There's nothing they would like to do less, they have no interest in that.
They built this fake Christianity of racism and oppression and
discrimination on top of your religion, what are you gonna do about it?
Are you gonna fight back?
Or are you gonna say to the rest of the world, yes, they do represent us,
we're all monsters like that.
All we want is to be able to lobby the government, get advantages for
corrupt, rich benefactors and make sure that we do racism and
oppress women, and of course, oppress gay people.
All the others, the others, right?
This guy,
this Family Research Council is one of the biggest lobbying groups of my life.
I've covered this for group for
two decades now, they're very powerful.
They could have enormous power within the Republican Party.
And now all of a sudden there a church.
So I'll give you one part that I just loved.
A ProPublica reporter called them and asked about their service times,
cuz if they're a church, he's like, I'd like to come to service.
And so when is your service time?
And the person on the phone said we don't have church service.
>> Of course not.
>> Of course not cuz they're a lobbying group.
[LAUGH] Okay, so in the IRS is like, no, we don't care about reality, we don't care
about truth, no, we care about political correctness and the politically correct
thing to do is to declare their church when we know for a fact that they're not.
>> So here's why this is dangerous okay, so we talk about the,
financial element to this because they don't have to pay taxes,
they're tax exempt based on what the IRS has classified them as.
But since they don't have to file their taxes,
that means that they don't have to disclose certain things.
Once the IRS blessed it as an association of churches,
the Family Research Council was no longer required to file a public tax
return known as a form 990 revealing key staffers salaries,
the names of board members and related organizations,
large payments to independent contractors and grants the organization has made.
Unlike with other charities.
I. R. S. Investigators can't initiate an audit on
a church unless a high level Treasury Department official has approved
the investigation.
So look, this, this also helps protect the privacy of
the individuals who fund think tanks and lobbying groups
like the Family Research Council to strip us of our rights.
So they get to do it with their privacy protected.
That's that's the other element of this.
And I would venture to say outside of being able to save some money from
having to pay taxes.
This is something that they care deeply about because they don't look,
people are fired up in this country so much so that they're willing to take to
the streets, they're willing to protest in front of Supreme Court justices Holmes and
you know, they just want to destroy your rights.
They just want to take away your freedoms without all that annoying.
You know, protest.
They don't want to hear from you.
So that's a huge part of this as well.
And the last thing is I just want you to remember that the churches are supposed to
be tax exam because they are not political.
They are not allowed to be political.
The whole point of Family Research Council is to be political.
So this is total Alison Wonderland alternate reality.
And in fact, if you're still not sure Tony Perkins has said, quote and signed as
the President of Family Research Council, quote, there is no doubt President
donald J trump is a lawful winner of the presidential election in 2020.
No, they don't do politics, they're just a church.
No, they're a right wing organization that is a lobbying group and the i.
s100% caved into them and has lied and cheated on their behalf.